


Somewhere to stop reading

by LostMe



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Metafiction, No Plot/Plotless, No beta we fall like Crowley, No end on purpose, Worldbuilding, a bit more angst than I intended, also NOT worldbuilding, also english is not my native language, wrong fandom references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 09:35:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26849797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostMe/pseuds/LostMe
Summary: As a seasoned reader, you may expect all stories to have a beginning, a middle, and an end.  The thing is, some stories began somewhere in the middle and get stuck. Well, when that happens, the characters get stuck too, obviously. So let's get a look at one stunted story but be aware: it does not end well. It also does not end badly per see. After all, the whole problem is that it can't ever end.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Somewhere to stop reading

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LightAroundtheCorner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightAroundtheCorner/gifts).



> The title was inspired by this breathtaking passage From The Sandman "Season of Mists":
> 
> "October knew, of course, that the action of turning a page, of ending a chapter or shutting a book, did not end a tale. Having admitted that, he would also avow that happy endings were never difficult to find: "It is simply a matter," he explained to April, "of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden and the grass is soft; somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and to be content."
> 
> \-- from The man who was October by G.K. Chesterton/Library of Dreams"

As a seasoned reader, you may expect all stories to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Sometimes the beginning is unclear and the end is very far apart from the middle. Some stories, those of the truly good kind, don’t ever end. They live forever in the heart of those who dreamed along with them. That said, this is not one of those stories. Well, at least it is not the kind to have a beginning or an end, although I can safely tell you we are somewhere in the middle. The thing is, the story I am about to tell isn’t even one single story as it begins where all the others ended. Or didn’t, for that matter.

Still too confusing? A good point to clarify may be that every story ever told is lived by characters that don’t ever die, no matter the quality of the story. Once created, they live, and live, and keep living. They love and they lose. But they also find themselves. Not metaphorically. Literary, pun intended. They actually find the other characters from their scripts sometimes in this strange Work In Progress (W.I.P) world that happens after the end.

One of these characters is known as Rey.

Well, all of them are known as Rey. But let’s focus on one specific Rey. Her story is as deserving as a telling as any other, even if an end is not on the horizon.

So, our Rey, like every other Rey , was inspired by the last Star Wars’ trilogy. This is important to say because the Star War’s world was already quite huge when she was born. This Rey was also canon for a while and canon characters aren’t really here. Copyright or something like that – well, there are versions of canon that end up here, wherever here is, but they are not the real deal. They are more like the canon that lives in people’s heads, so fanon, really. They are just too proud to admit it. Anyway, I’ve lost the plotline once again. The thing is, our Rey was canon once. And I can tell you, she was living a fairy tale. A real-fairy tale. She had everything running at her favor: she was an orphan, she had magical powers, she had a comedy-relief sidekick. She was even promised to a Disney-prince-turned-the-beast. Things weren’t properly good yet but it was just the middle arc. Anything could happen further down the line.

But canon happened.

Our Rey was replaced by another Rey and ended up here. And in case you need names, I am not afraid to tell you. He-who-shall-not-be-named is from another franchise (although there are some crossovers, be aware of them!). Our Rey had her story interrupted to give place to one Rey Skywalker.

Our Rey didn’t like Rey Skywalker that much. You see, it is not very uncommon to be replaced in this business, so it is generally okay to see your story being told by other hands. So that is not really the problem. The bigger problem is that Rey Skywalker just seems like another character to our Rey. She doesn’t respect her history. She doesn’t understand her feelings. It was just like someone created another character with the same name and same description and said: here, be the same. She couldn’t accept that.

Well, right now she had another problem: one Rey Skywalker was annoyingly complaining about the quality of her pickles once again.

“I don’t know why I keep coming here! Your products are so lame!”

Yes, our Rey doesn’t know why either.

“Aren’t you going to defend yourself?”

What’s the point? You were created based on fanboy’s fantasies and hate, miss. There is no arguing with you.

“I will never come here again!”

Yes, please do that.

Ah, yes. Did I forget to tell you? After her fairy-tale was ruined, she resorted to selling pickles. It was a good business. At least she got to see everyone on the market- she could do with less Reys of the Skywalker variety though. She had seen some Dark Reys emerging, something about the last episode being a villain origin story. That would be interesting. Maybe Dark Reys could reign over the Skywalkers.

Well, back to the market. The market was interesting! Every now and then you could see a parade of Storm Troopers. Sometimes they would start shooting but they never hit anything, so who cares?

Just early today she got to see yet another Han Solo trying to connect with the wrong Ben. It is always sad and amusing in equal measures. Imagine the scene: for every spin-off ever created, every mind that interpreted a movie differently, ever fanfiction ever written with a Han Solo, there is a Han Solo here. And maybe this Han Solo fathered a Ben Solo in his world. Well, 99 of 100 that those two have some kind of problem, even in Alternative Universes, so the Hans are constantly trying to reconnect. The problem though: it is very difficult to reconnect with your own Ben Solo, so it’s almost impossible to other Bens. Today’s Hans has been attacked with a slipper. It was mostly funny if a bit intense. In the end, the P.A. interfered and everyone was left unharmed.

Oh, I did forget to tell you about the P.A., didn’t I? So, there is this fascinating character created in the same trilogy as Rey, one Poe Dameron. And what is the thing that they all share? The Poes are smart! Impulsive, yes, but once they understood this post-ending world they lived in? They decided to organize themselves and make something good from it. So, the Poe Association emerged! It was actually a copy-paste of the Leahs’ Association but you can’t really count on the Leahs. They mainly got very tired of the Hans and decided to live Amazon-style in the middle of a planet in a galaxy far far away.

So, back to the Poe Association. Our Rey could never find her Poe (her in the sense that he was the Poe in her original storyline) but she did find a lot of nice Poes around. She was particularly fond of Poe #3748 and Poe #58967 – not to be confused with Poe #58697 who was a jerk (as far as our Rey could tell, he was created as your typical gay stereotype to prove that a rather homophobic author wasn’t homophobic. We could talk in length about Poe #58697 but he is not the focus of this story.

The important thing to know about the Poes, you see, is that even if Poes are generally nice, some of them were made by haters. These generally are not allowed to register at the Poe association, so always ask for the ID of a Poe before engaging. Another problem: Stupid Fins – don’t let me be misunderstood, many Fins were really nice guys. Our Rey, however, had to deal with a particularly annoying variety of Fins that insisted that they deserved a chance with her for the most varied reasons. She had a bingo card with her. Today she had already crossed out: 1) refusing to stay with me is racism; 2) It is sex that defines who takes the girl, we can do that; and 3) I am a good guy, I deserve the girl. And hate Poes usually went along that madness. It was very problematic, you see, because it was oppressing the Roses too but it looked like the P.A. was doing something about that, so our Rey was somewhat relieved. Of course, there is a bunch of Palpatines and Snokes around. The Huxes were also suspiciously trying to form an Association but so far they were either too coward or too ambitious to do it the proper way – that’s another reason why bad Poes are dangerous. Some of them are working with the more organized Huxes. Also, be aware of the older/dead variety of Yodas around, they are rather incendiary. The Darth Vaders couldn’t go anywhere without their theme song announcing them and so far they seem to get along well with both the Obi Wans and the Lukes (the younger ones, the older ones tend to self-isolate for some reason).

But overall, life was easy as a W.I.P., if that was really what she was.

The problem, you see, the problem was just that their stories didn’t end but also didn’t go on. For some, it was easier. The Child Anakins almost always could be brought back to some version of their mothers. Adult Anakins and Padmés generally decided to work on their relationship – the P.A. was doing an amazing job of providing free therapy to them. And there was more, so much more going on. The Hans had their Millennium Falcons to happily escape. The Landos had resurfaced recently. There was also an alarming amount of young “yodas” sprouting around that no one seems to know what to do about or where to put, really. Maybe that’s how the world will end: too much unnamed little yodas.

Nonetheless, they were all mostly fine.

For those who had endings, no matter how tragic, going on was at some measure, possible.

But our Rey was stuck.

Her story had some kind of beginning, even if it began somewhere around the middle, but it would probably never end. She was lost in between canon and fanon.

And no matter how much help she got from the P.A., she could never find anyone from her world. Not her Poe. Not her Fin.

Not her Ben.

Oh, she could never find her Ben.

She just hoped that canon had been gentler with him.

And at this point, my dear, seasoned reader, if you were very kind you would pardon the brief and disconnected way I told this story. The more generous of you may ever say: well, you went for a bit of world-building, okay. Now, where is the rest of it?

If I didn’t make it clear before, I apologize. The point here is that there is no more to tell. No, really. Because our Rey is ours in the sense that I looked at her and decided to describe her situation to you. Further than that, she is not my Rey. Her story is not mine to tell. Not yet, not today.

So I can’t tell you what happens to her. There is something I can tell you though, this much I know. Her Ben fought hard to be canon. He fought for her, he fought for them. Unfortunately, that means that his story went a bit beyond than hers. He actually went long enough that he met another Rey, and not knowing that she was not his Rey anymore, loved her. He lived for her. He died for her. Well, when I say died… He didn’t really because he was never meant to die _die._ But part of his soul died that day. The part that believed she could have loved him, at least. So he too is somewhere in between, wandering around this post-end/W.I.P. world looking for meaning, looking for closure. He isn’t looking for his Rey because he does not believe in the fairy-tales anymore. He isn’t even looking for a Rey.

Rather sad, isn’t it? But hey, not everything is lost. With my little eye, I’ve seen that our Rey’s Ben is a close friend to Poe #58967 who is actually rather fond of pickles. That would be an interesting story to tell, would it not? Well, all we need now is someone to write it and then someone to read it. That’s all it takes for a Happy Ever After, did I forget to tell you?

I’m sorry if I did. It looks like I simply keep forgetting, these days.

**Author's Note:**

> If you are still here, please let me explain myself. I do not usually write for this fandom. When I say that these characters do not live in my heart I was being truthful. They, however, live in the heart of someone who is truly precious to me and was devastated when this story was killed without a real end by the franchise. I proposed this world long ago as a joke (one rather more humorous than this fic, I swear!) and had rather forgotten about it until I was asked for a handmade birthday present. Well, right now I don't have many words to give but whatever good ones remained, I hope you can accept Nye. Happy Birthday!


End file.
